Wednesday, July 24, 2013

With the advent of gravel racing and the increasing participation in this niche, many manufacturers have been taking a hard look at putting out product to attract the dollars of dirt road riders everywhere. Take Salsa Cycles Warbird, or Clement Pneumatics gravel tires as an example here.

I've already detailed a bit of info on Surly Bikes "Straggler", which has a very gravel bike oriented look to it. (See here) Now I can speak openly about a project Raleigh has been cooking up for about a year now. The Tamland gravel specific racer.

Cyclo Cross Magazine busted open this story yesterday on their Facebook page and scooped some details from Raleigh on this new rig. Made from Reynolds 631 steel tubes, sporting TRP Spyre mechanical disc brakes, and a brand spanking new Ultegra 11 speed group, this bike is not a half-hearted attempt at trying to jump on a bandwagon and pry some dollars from a niche group of cyclists. It looks like Raleigh may have done this one up very well, in my opinion.

For one thing, Cyclo Cross Mag says this bike has Clement MSO's on it with "plenty of clearance". Their words, not mine. If so, this bodes very well in that department. Obviously, you can also see that the chainstays are a bit longer, for stability and tire clearances, and it sure looks as though that bottom bracket is sitting low, which if true would be a really good thing as well.

This was the bike I was hoping Raleigh would put out there, if it is what I think it is, and if so, it will be a fine handling rig. That's about all I can say now. There is a lot I like about it so far.

To be completely honest, Raleigh actually called me up and picked my brain one day. I spoke on a conference call with their team that worked on this, so if they took my advisement and made it reality, I guess I'll be proven wrong or right on what I think a gravel bike should be. But I do not know how much of what I told them they took to heart, so we'll have to see there.

At any rate, the name: "Tamland". I'm not a movie buff, so I Googled it. Wow! Maybe us gravel grinders are a bunch of freaked out, mentally challenged weirdos. Either that or we're crazy like a fox!

@matt: I did recommend disc brakes- not because I thought the bike needed them, but because that is what I believe is most marketable right now. It doesn't hurt to have them, but personally, I do not think disc brakes are necessary and I believe they possibly take away from the ride quality.

-Canti mounts are higher up on the fork blades, and usually do not sit at a point where forks flex. (Crown area and lower third of fork blades typically are where forces are absorbed)

-Canti mounts are typically lighter and do not affect ride quality by interrupting tubing lengths as disc brakes do.

However; Disc brakes are the "soup de jour" of the CX, road, and gravel communities. Putting canti mounts on these new gravel specific bikes would be marketing suicide in 2014. Canti brakes are more than powerful enough on gravel, better riding quality results, and are generally lighter/less expensive and easier to maintain, but none of that matters right now.

I'm keen to find out what the msrp on the Raleigh will be. I can't afford the Ti Warbird and couldn't warm up to the aluminum version. Hopefully the 11 speed groupset doesn't send the price of this into the stratosphere.